Let’s get the result out of the way first. We went out to a weaker team who were nonetheless very well-drilled in defence. AEK scored with their only two attempts on goal last night and with one of their two at Celtic Park. This contrasts greatly with our chance conversation rate. It hurts and is money left on the table.
Recruitment is correctly at the heart of the inquest. Not only did nine of last night’s starters play under Ronny Deila, seven of them were once the heart of Neil Lennon’s team. Only Olivier Ntcham and Jack Hendry were brought to the club by Brendan Rodgers. One of Moussa Dembele or Odsonne Eduard, both Brendan signings, would have started if fully fit, while the Belgian, a Ronny signing, would have started in other circumstances.
This is Brendan’s fifth transfer window, so why do so many remain from the Ronny/Neil eras? There are good reason and bad reasons. McGregor, Rogic and Forrest have improved significantly under Brendan. We want more like this.
We only have accounts for Brendan’s first year, which show a £13.8m spent on player registrations. Since then we have bought big ticket players like Ntcham and Edouard, and more. Total spend will not be a whisker below £30m. Profit for Brendan’s first year was £6.9m. We could spend more (always), but we are still in an expenditure territory that AEK could not dream about.
I wanted John McGinn, but he is irrelevant to last night. He would not have displaced Ntcham or Brown. Not only was John not a solution, he was yet another squad player!
I’m not saying it’s easy, in fact, it’s difficult. We did not fall to a team who necessarily had a better plan for their recruitment budget, every season there is an AEK who hit the right numbers and over perform, before reverting to the mean. These are the perils of qualification.
We do not have a viable plan to continually qualify for the Champions League, and failures like this hurt. But we have been here before.
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Season already downgraded regardless of Europa League qualification. Still have to win a play off to get there. Stadium will be half full for the Europa League at best.
I don’t buy the McGinn signing or not being disruptive he’s not Celtic class anyway AND couldn’t have played last night, but Boyata should be sent to train with the youths after his “injury” forced him to miss these ties. Most important games of the season, he refuses to play. Arsehole. Get rid ASAP he will I predict, never pull on the Hoops again.
New signings needed to bolster the defence ASAP Lustig is done, Ralston is nowhere near good enough, nor is Gamboa. Two new first choice defenders needed before the end of August, at least. . .
Also, is it still true that Dermot Desmond hasn’t attended an official board meeting in over a decade?
Yeah, let’s rely on that guy to put things right…
TBB
Don’t forget the mass flouncing and swearing?
Brendan has laid the blame game firmly with the board.
Who did we fail to sign for the CL qualifiers?
Did we fail to sign defenders or was the plan to qualify with what we had including Boyata?
Interesting days CSC
https://twitter.com/McCeltic1888/status/1029690664097902592?s=08
Will be taken down by now….
There have been collective failures since (and including) the January transfer window, close season and our season up to this point.
Nobody – from the players, Brendan & coaching staff, recruitment staff and the board – are exempt.
Central defence has been a nightmare – and this is without the benefit of the last 3 games.
I liked the idea of a Bundesliga experienced player coming in – he ticked all the boxes for me – and from his comments Brendan was happy with him and the January window in general. That has obviously not worked but there was plenty time (this window) to correct that. Even if Boyata had signed and stayed we needed another centre half. But nothing done.
McGinn would have helped on Saturday but not last night. McGinn was not a ‘must have’ for me – I agree that he would have faced a big challenge fighting for a place with Broonie/Ntcham/McGregor/Rogic but then although a totally different player, he would have replaced Armstrong within the squad. What I feel about McGinn anyway is irrelevant – it’s clear Brendan has wanted him (as did Broonie), and courted him for some time now. £3m would have got him (less if you include Scott Allan) and for this outlay, it represented no risk to the board. They have to carry the can for that and the ongoing consequences.
You are right Paul that we have been here before (at times where our stability was certainly not as good as now). The manager/board rift simply has to be repaired – if it is then we will weather this storm and get back on track for Europa League & 8 in a row, on course for The Ten.
PORCIERTO 1251
Few of us have a problem with PL as a CEO. He has been congratulated many times from the deepest of mines for his results in that role.
It is not his job to get involved in football matters,only to set agreed budgets and deliver players within that remit.
That and that alone is where so many of us have a problem with him. It has cost us probably £50m in shocking signings in the six years or so before BR arrived.
And here he is,doing it again.
Paul 67
Absolute nonsense.
You state ‘We only have accounts for Brendan’s first year, which show a £13.8m spent on player registrations. Since then we have bought big ticket players like Ntcham and Edouard, and more…’ If what I think you mean by ‘big ticket players’ ie multi million pound signings, could you tell me who you refer to when you say ‘and more’?
Also, as you seem keen to quote accounts, I see you have conveniently forgot to mention that the club was 30.9 million in the black at the last set of accounts!!!
The costs you mentioned are very affordable.
Your header today hasn’t mentioned how the overall result would probably have been vastly different
if the board had recruited in the areas which we have been crying out for, for nearly a year, namely right back and central defence.
Paul67, don’t be a patsy for the Celtic board. Man up and call it as you see it, not the way Lawwell wants you to report it.
mike in toronto on 15th August 2018 12:53 pm
I’ll swim against the tide …our defenders are not the problem
——————————————————————————
Boy do you lawyers love an argument!!! LOL!!! Nice one Mike…! :-)))))
The article on John McGinn is quite shocking. If it’s true that Brendan met John at his home in May, and that the deal was not subsequently done, that is damning for Peter Lawwell. Similarly the idea that someone described as Peter Lawwell’s lackey, probably Michael Nicholson, phoned John at the last minute playing the emotional card when he was in Birmingham, again shocking.
Paul, to suggest John McGinn would have been a squad player is simply not your call. Brendan wanted the player immediately, in advance of the qualifiers, therefore the deal should have been done the minute Stuart Armstrong walked out of the door. Peter Lawwell dropped the ball big time.
ron67 on 15th August 2018 12:41 pm
i have asked many times on here who is coaching the defence on how to set-up and defend because it aint working
——-
I have said before that our defence as a whole underperforms the quality of the defenders individually. Compare with Telfer, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor.
We concede the same types of goals all the time – off the ball movement, not tracking midfield runners, set pieces. The ball watching is schoolboy stuff.
Are they not able to do anything about it or are they not even seeing it?
The plan ing for this season’s squad, should have included getting guys out the door,
Comperr
De Vries
Gamboa
Allan
Christie
Miller
Jozo
Boyata
Guys who make zero contribution, or not good enough, could have bought 2 CBs with that lot punted……
A CEO who continually fails to put the necessary team in place to tender for the biggest contract in his sector opens himself up to competency questions.
Not posted in a long time but completely scunnered. The team we lost to last night wouldn’t have beaten Rosenberg. No argument from me we needed to bolster the defence but it always strikes me as crazy though that we attempt to do this in the summer window. There’s not enough time to bed players in and form decent partnerships and attempt to qualify for the CL.
However this public spat between the manager and the board can’t be helping either, we know the media will spin this every which way and try to drive a wedge between all parties. These things should be sorted in private.
John McGinn getting it again, he has never been employed by Celtic, concentrate on who we have on our payroll.
For all our defensive deficiencies, our forwards players conversation rate on chances created over the 2 legs was just as pathetic as our defensive statistics. People (myself included) get encouragement from winning a corner, shout “come on” in vain at the TV, Knowing fine well it will amount to nothing. When did we last score from a corner kick? We never look as if we have ever practiced anything resembling a “tactic” to implement at corners. Who in the coaching staff is “het” for this? Similarly what is John Kennedy bringing to the table? Nothing personal but obviously he is nowhere near sufficiently qualified to coach defensive tactics/formations at a club the size of Celtic. I get it that Celtic would try to do their best to accommodate him in some capacity within the club due to the circumstances of his early retirement, but this particular role seems to be bearing no fruit. The need for fresh faces to step directly into and improve the starting 11 is hopefully now apparent to all within the hierarchy. For no new faces to arrive before the window closes would be a kick in the balls for everyone who has put in their hard earned cash over the past few years. Time to step up PL/DD and back BR.
The non signing of John McGinn was far from irrelevant.
It wasn’t irrelevant on Saturday , and won’t be irrelevant as the season unfolds.
It showed a worrying lack of focus and lack of communication and shared goals between the CEO and our manager.
Was J.McGinn the only one we missed ?
Scunnered CSC
when it comes to defenders I have more sympathy than most. There are exceptional ones out there – fast, powerful, good on the ball etc but they are not the norm. Most Often when a defence looks good it’s not because it has players like that in it who can defend simply as a back four or as individual defenders – it’s about how they are organised and how those in front of them are organised. Hendry and simunovic would look like much better players if they were in teams who play like AEK – I’m not sure their defenders are better than ours. They just have a more simple job and they enjoy much more protection. But even with that they were exposed quite a few times.
In short we shouldnt scapegoat individuals. I think Ajer will be a top defender in time. Hendry and Simo should be back ups. That fast powerful good on the ball leader is what our style of play requires under BR. A better right back too. I like Gamboa but he’s not the answer.
It really is about quality now. But the system needs looking at too.
Recruitment? I give you Lee Congerton our Head of Recruitment
Written by a Sunderland fan after he left there under a cloud
https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2016/7/4/12093504/congerton-flawed-or-fraud
!!BADA BING!! on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:06 PM
The plan ing for this season’s squad, should have included getting guys out the door,
add A Ralston,K Benyu also to your list.
CHAIRBHOY. 1253
Great post
I think the PL/BR relationship is FUBAR’d. That’s a huge worry.
PL won’t leave,he has huge bonuses accruing,and BR might not mind a pissing competition but he won’t put up with being the target for one.
Not buying the McGinn deflection, Paul. He may not have started but could have played a part. Or played on Saturday and given Brown a break.
We knew Armstrong wouldn’t be here this season when he only signed a two year deal last year. Clearly Brendan identified him as a replacement during last season and it shouldn’t have been a difficult deal to complete.
We also knew Lustig and Boyata would be at the World Cup and that Boyata probably wouldn’t be here this season.
I can accept we can’t be in the CL every season, but I can’t accept that we didn’t do everything we could to get there.
‘We’ve been here before’.
Indeed we have. And it’s scadalous we’re here again.
In the UK the average tenure of a CEO is just under 5 years.
*cough* September 2003 *cough*
I agree with P67’s leader. But there may be some fault in BR’s coaching set-up too. We all want recruits in defence (and a GK) but wouldn’t we want a well-drilled in defence defending against the likes of Barcelona and be well-drilled at set-plays taking advantage when we can. The amount of corners and free-kicks we win in matches (against packed defences) go to waste all the time. The double treble has taken the spotlight away from these facts.
Some may have a laugh at England’s results in the WC especially the ‘love-train’ combo at corners but many of their goals came from set-plays and they got to fourth place FFS.
Even VVD and Denayer were clumsy defending set-plays at Celtic.
So maybe we should bring in a new defence coach and a specalist set-plays coach amongst others.
We will sell Botyata. for approx. 4 M…. Selel Dembele approx. 7 M and KT if offer over 15M comes in. PL decides who comes in Apart from SS were any others BR players? BRs treatment of Gamboa has been shocking. Playing Hendry last year at RB the playing a n obviously less than 100% Lustig even after last weeks error
THE JOHNATRON on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:10 PM
Spot on! Absolutely correct with all of those points. I raised the issue of corner kicks and our failure to deliver at either end couple of days ago. Same applies to other dead ball situations at either end. No apparent plan leads to no positive results. Dreadful!
Did we lose the tie with 3 defensive errors or did we fail to win the tie in the 2nd half at Celtic Park?
mit@12:53pm
bang on.
Was the big guy at the back not always the worst player in the school team, who was told just to hit the ball whatever way he was facing?
PS I like Izzy but he is not a BR signing. Sign a decent hungry LB who will challenge KT.. No player should be a starter unless his current form merits it. If you come in and do well you should keep your place. Unfortunately too may managers have favourites who they can’t see past.
Why would we buy McGinn as a “squad player”? I thought he was intended as a replacement for Scott Brown – in which case he surely would need to start regularly and fill in at least on occasion?
Anyway – does any of the clever clogses here on CQN have an idea of how much the Celtic Hotel is expected to bring in annually? I’m just wondering if there’s any need to budget for any kind of football competition at all in future? Semi-serious question…
;-))))))
Ron67- i thought about inc Ralston, but would see if he develops with a loan deal, totally forgot about Benyu…..
Broon and Kouassi in tandem in the middle, breaking-up attacks, tidying up, giving us a platform to build from, Sam Jackson right in front of them, without defensive chains, free to utilise his vision and link with our creatives.
That’s the European midfield for every game. More conservative but more effective at shutting the opposition’s space down.
You sacrifice one of three permed from four to employ it; Calmac/Rogic/Forrest/Sincy
But we used it once to full effect v Zenit, beat them. Used it agian in crunch game with minis, beat them.
About time we persevered with it, as there’s precious little to show for our open approach to away ties; the BR attack-attack philosophy doesn’t work in Europe at our recruitment level, players affordable to us cannot make the huge step up to go toe-to-toe with the very best without a solid foundation.
I thought he had found it with that triuvirate. I think he still has. Not sure if he really wants to go so ‘defensive’ tho.
This was my preditcition for Paul’s leader today
im afraid you can’t separate the two. The board board money, we don’t get good players, results suffer, we get less money to hoard.
As for Paul’s article. To paraphrase.
It’s all Brendan’s fault (after all it can’t be peters).
The players should be good enough (blame Brendan)
Need different tactics (blame Brendan)
Time to move on (forget about it etc)
Or maybe something about the Huns so called share issu (which is surreal to be honest). Or some other nice squirrel.
The hilarious thing is that the accounts are due out. How are they gonna hide all that money. Special reserves, contingencies blah blah blah.
And so it came to pass. It’s Brendan’s fault for his recruitment. Maybe it was Paul that briefed Chris McLaughlin because it’s clear that lawwell and co want Brendan out. All of this of course is nonsense. Brendan isn’t getting the players he wants and then they are trying to blame him for his recruitment. Ironic huh!
I would say shame on Paul but he is shameless and any credibility he had has long gone (for me it was when he was on the bbc saying how much he missed rangers).
CQN is frankly a farce.
Still we have new lights and sound. Ain’t that sweet?
Paul 67,
If finance was the only criteria then correct we should have comfortably beaten AEK over two legs. Our players coat more and we pay more.
However they seem to have been coached better and had an obvious game plan.
What the f@ck are our coaches doing. Yes we need new quality players; however we must ensure they are coached correctly and do not fight for their place on the treatment table.
The blame for our latest European failure over the two AEK games lies squarely with the players, coaches and management team.
I remember Ernie Lynch stating that we should pass the ball back to CG from a corner; at least then we would retain possession. Maybe in jest ( partly) but it is so true. Our set pieces are clueless.
Can we motivate players to raise their game, particularly in Europe. That question remains unanswered.
Still gutted. HH
PS: It wasn’t John McGinn ( another project) we needed last night, it was the organisational skills and winning mentality of John Terry.
Gutted after last night. To get sucker punched by a bang average team once is fair enough, to get done by them in 2 matches is unacceptable.
Random collection of thoughts.
– Gordons distribution remains awful. Any decent coach knows a high press inevitably leads to Gordon smacking the ball over the head of our wide players and into touch. An easy way to get possession back. A tactical solution needs to be found here if a new first choice goalkeeper is not going to be recruited.
– When was the last time we scored from a corner? With the exception of Boyata our centre halves offer little to no threat in the opposition box. Not helped by our lack of a dead ball expert.
– Griffiths is our only decent dead ball striker but is no longer a first choice player. Someone must be brought in who is a dead ball expert, even if it means sacrificing an existing first choice player.
– Rogic is out of his depth in the Champions league and is too easily marked out of the game.
– The ideal front 4 last night would have been Dembele, Edouard (left wing), McGregor and Forrest. Tierney more than makes up for the fact that Edouard would drift inside.
– Lustig is finished, at least at right back. He can probably give us a few more years as a back up centre half.
– Hendry is not at our level yet and should be bled in the league. Keep him away from European matches please.
Assuming Boyata is going to be sold we need at least 2 first choice centre halves, a right back and a dead ball expert before the transfer window closes.
Will we get them? No, me neither…..
JIMBOB71 & LITTLE MISS JIMBOB on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:17 PM
Did we lose the tie with 3 defensive errors or did we fail to win the tie in the 2nd half at Celtic Park?
is not all about lasts nights woeful defending we are talking about the general defensive qualities we have and that is zilch
SANDMAN on 15TH AUGUST 2018 1:21 PM
Yes, great post por cierto.